The return of the black widow
by Sjeherazade
Summary: Have you ever wanted to meet a person on internet in real life? Have you ever been warned to meet a person on internet? Imagine the opposite, you have no plans to meet them, but someone else have made up the plans and kidnaps you and your online friends.
1. Toronto, Canada

The return of the black widow.

_Toronto, Canada_

_8.08 (British time 13.08) Wednesday_

Lauren King turned the computer off as she saw what time it was.

She gave Allie a kiss on her cheek and ran outside before Allie had got time to remind her that she was late, and then she tried to catch the buss. She ran to the bus stop in the corner and noticed that no one was there waiting for the bus, she had missed it.

As she was standing there wondering if she should go back home or wait for the next bus, a man came up to the bus stop.

Lauren decided to stay. Allie would have a lot to say about a missed bus so the best thing was not to admit it.

But if Allie went out to shop or something, and saw her waiting there she would know.

Lauren started to walk for the next bus stop. This day had begun in a very great way so she didn't really want it to end in any detention.

She and Tamsyn had been planning a joke for week, Tamsyn would play this trick on Josh and Rob today, Lauren had got the mail from Tamsyn this morning and Lauren was dying to finish school so she could go back home and read about it all.

She giggled as she thought about how scared Josh and Rob would be.

When Lauren had left the bus stop, the man took up a cell phone from his pocket and made a call. Then he followed her.

He caught up with her on a crossing were she was waiting for the cars to drive by.

Lauren was watching the cars as they drove by and wondered if they would make her miss another bus. The last car in the traffic jam was driving very slowly she noticed and it stayed right on the crossing and one of the backdoors was opened.

The next second the man from the bus stop had placed his hand over Laurens mouth and forced her into the car.


	2. Portsmouth, England

**Chapter**** 2**

_Abbey School_

_Portsmouth, England_

_15.19 Wednesday_

The first minutes of the break Tamsyn hid in the library. She wanted to be sure that the boys were in the computer lab before she arrived. To be extremely sure she checked the equipment that she had bought in a joke shop one last time before she left.

Before she opened the door to the computer lab Tamsyn opened her bag and looked at the equipment with a smile. She picked it up and opened the door, still smiling.

"Hello". Tamsyn smiled and reached for the electrical outlet and… Then there was a sparkle around Tamsyn who screamed and fainted. Josh screamed and run over to her to help. Rob screamed too, but when he tried to follow Josh, he forgot the brake on his wheelchair and it overturned.

Tamsyn, who Josh were sure was dead by now, screamed again and run over to him. He was shocked but not hurt. Josh began to scold her, but he just ended up laughing. When Tamsyn told them that Lauren had been involved they laughed even more.

Then Rob's parents opened the door just to see their son lying on the floor, laughing beside the overturned wheelchair. After they had heard the story behind, and noticed that he wasn't hurt they laughed too. Then, when Rob was back in the chair and had left with his parents, Tamsyn sat down in front of a computer and wrote some lines about the joke to Lauren.

**lktoro****.ca**

**tamsyn****.**

_Mission completed_**! **

**Everything turned out just as we planned it, except that the brake on Rob's wheelchair didn't worked so he fell ****out. But it was really a nice day. But I believe that we can look forward to a terrible revenge for this. :-(((**

Then Tamsyn took her things and went home. This had been the best week in her life. And it wasn't enough that her and Laurens plans had been that successful, her mother had won a travel around the world. Her family would leave next Friday and even if that meant that her little brother Nick would be there too, she was really looking forward to this. Josh had fell of his chair when she had told him, even Rob who was from a family that earned enough money to do the same thing at least every week of the year, had seemed a little jealous.


	3. Portsmouth, England 2

**Chapter 3**

_Abbey School_

_Portsmouth, England_

_8.00 Thu__rsday_

Totally convinced that she had a mail from Canada waiting for her, Tamsyn had left her bed extra early so she would come to school and read it before Josh and Rob hadn't even woke up. But she hadn't got any reply from Lauren. But on the other hand, she had got one from Tom in Australia.

**tamsyn****.**

**sherlock**

**Copies**** to: zmaster****.uk, allstar****., nightowl****, ****lktoro****.ca**

**Hey everyone**

**I can actually see you sitting in school, locked in, in your classrooms right now, so I decided to cheer you up… My class is going on a trip today. And I will really enjoy myself… I'm thinking about you. Are you feeling better? I knew it.**

Josh had come in to the computer lab and now he was standing behind Tamsyn's back reading Tom's mail over her shoulder.

"I'm glad that he remembers us anyway". He muttered and glared at the computer, and then he started laughing. "Tamsyn, can't you reply something like: "Because of that, you are not an internet detective anymore!" ?".

"Yes, he would like that" Tamsyn wrote the mail and logged out. But she didn't have any reply in the entire day. Neither from Lauren nor Tom.

A bit depressed the three friends walked home.


	4. Portsmouth, England 3

**Chapter 4 **

_Abbey School_

_Portsmouth, England_

_8.11 __Monday_

On Monday Josh was the first one arriving to school. And when Rob and Tamsyn arrived he sat down and stared at what Mitch had written during the weekend.

**allstar****. **

**nightowl**

**H****i. Have you got any mails from Tom or Lauren last days? No one of them have been written to me since the middle of last week and I can't remember writing anything that would make them angry. On the contrary, in their last mails they were just very happy, especially Tom. But you already know about him I think. Please, reply as fast as you can. I don't think it's something to worry about but I want to be certain. **

**Mitch**

Josh looked at his friends, they looked back and on each other and back again. None of them had spoken too Lauren or Tom since last week. Tamsyn got a chair and sat down.

"I don't like this mail." She said and placed one leg over the other. But non of the boys agreed.

"Why not?" Rob asked and drove over to one of the computers. Haven't you saved some mails over the weekend sometimes too?"

"Yes I have, but the thing is, I have been waiting for their replies since the middle of last week and before that break they could write over seven mails a day, they had never been more active, except when we have some mystery to solve, and it seemed as they wanted to continue. Mitch is right, something is wrong." Then Rob started hesitating.

"It was a long time since we heard from them actually…" But Josh wasn't convinced.

"Not you too…" He stopped when he saw their faces. "Alright". Then he replied Mitch that no one had heard from Tom or Lauren since last week. And after that he wrote a message for them too.

**lktoro****.ca**

**Copy: sherlock**

**allstar****.**

**Tom, Lauren.**

**Mitch, Rob and Tamsyn are worried about you. They think something have happened. Answer as fast as you see this please. **

"Is that better?" None of them seemed really satisfied and that made Josh hesitate too, and he felt bad when he couldn't make his two best friends feel better. Something could be wrong about this actually, but they couldn't do anything more right now. "Come on, the lesson is starting"


	5. Bunbury, Australia

**Chapter 5**

_Bunbury__, Australia_

_9.20 __Wednesday again_

Tom's class had travelled to Bunbury by bus. The journey took the entire day but that was no problem. Before they would go to bed, the leaders had decided they would have an activity. They took another bus out to the wild and everyone got a map which would help them find a message in the woods. They needed all those messages to solve a problem they would be given next morning. When they had got all the different maps they walked away in different directions. Tom ran to the beach. He had decided to find his clue and be back before everyone else. His dad was a detective after all and Tom didn't want his classmates to believe him to be worse.

He stopped to look at the map again.

Then he noticed a malignant pain in his arm. He looked at it and got a shock when he saw the reason, an anaesthetic arrow. He had barely seen what it was that hurt before everything got darker. He tried to turn around and run but he couldn't. When he felt he was falling he tried to scream, but it was too late, the poison had already got him and he was unconscious before he hit the ground.

_Somewhere on the ocean _

_Later_

"Tom? Can you hear me?" Tom rose and sat up. A girl that he didn't know was watching him. She was a little younger than him and she had long blond and a little curly hair. He didn't know this girl, but in some way, she seemed to know him.

"May I ask two questions! Where am I? And who are you?" The girl bite her lips she seemed very nervous when she answered.

"I'm Lauren King and I have no clue about where we are"

"Lauren?!" Tom lay back in his bed again. His headache made him feel sick and the fact that he had been kidnapped together with his mail friend from another part of the world did not really made him feel better. Lauren tried to console him by keep talking.

"Maybe I was lucky after all. They didn't drug me… Actually I have one clue about were we are." Tom opened his eyes again.

"Where?" Lauren hesitated.

"We are in a submarine" her suddenly very weak voice said. A submarine. Tom's brain started to work again. Everything seemed so obvious now. The beach… the anaesthetic arrow… It wasn't just a coincidence that he had been the one who was given the map that lead to the clue on the beach. Someone had planned it. He looked at Lauren again.

"Do you know what have happened?"

"No, I haven't met anyone, except when they dragged you in here. They send in food through an opening in the door and they have never spoken to me."

Tom took a deep breath, his headache got even worse, everything got worse. A submarine, under water, no chance to escape.


	6. Portsmouth, England 4

**Chapter 6**

_Portsmouth, England_

_Fri__day_

Tamsyn had left with her family for London to begin their Earth journey and Josh was sitting on his bike to visit Rob. They had a day off from school and had decided to do something that would make Tamsyn as jealous as she had made them, or at least do something really special. And moreover, Josh actually wanted to know if Rob had heard from Tom or Lauren yet. He rang the doorbell and filled his throat with air. When he heard Rob's voice in the loudspeaker he began to burp the alphabet in the microphone. His friend immediately let him in. Rob had just stopped laughing when Josh came in to his room.

"What is wrong with you? You always use to laugh eleven days after I have burped the alphabet!" Rob just pointed at the screen

Armed Robbery on Cyber Snax New York - The employees are still kept hostages.

"So Mitch has got into trouble?" Josh tried to keep calm. "What can we do about that?" Rob glared angrily at him.

"Wasn't that the first thing you and Tamsyn thought when I was in the same situation? You didn't even know were I was but you found me anyway, and we know were Mitch is so…"

"Yes, but if you can read it on the Internet, the police is already there to help him!" But Rob was still worried.

"There are other things too!" He opened a mail that Mitch had sent him. "Look! Tom and Lauren haven't written. Not to him, and not to me… "

"Do you still think something has happened to them?"

"Yes"

"Okay, I give up I'm worried too. Are you happy now? We can't do anything if they don't reply can we?" Rob answered by pulling the window down so Josh could read the end.

**Allie ****told me that Lauren disappeared without a trace last Wednesday. **

Finally Josh got scared. "But wasn't it about that time she stopped writing?" Rob nodded.

"And I have spoke to Tom's dad too. He told me that Tom disappeared from the school camp he told us about." He turned the wheelchair around to look at Josh when he spoke to him.

"Do you see it? Something happened to Lauren, something happened to Tom and now something has happened to Mitch as well! And what does those three have in common? All of them know us. We are next. And what about the trip Tamsyn's mum won. Maybe that was just a trap, than Tamsyn is in danger too!"

"Not if we can stop them before their bus goes to London!"

"What time?"

Josh looked at the clock. "In fifteen minutes"…

Robs parents wasn't at home so they called a taxi and went outside to wait. Finally Josh was ready to give up and looked down on his friend.

"Maybe we should go back inside and write her a message instead. It is possible that she reads it before it's too late." But at that moment the taxi arrived.

The chauffeur got out of his car to help Rob with the chair and Josh jumped in beside him in the back seat, the next second the man was back behind the steering wheel.

Josh and Rob looked at each other. It hadn't taken the chauffeur much time to put the wheelchair in the car. They looked outside, it laid there overturned on the ground.

Josh tried to open his door, only to discover that he couldn't do that from inside the car. Then he jumped up to attack the driver, he gripped his head, trying to force him to stop the car but that didn't irritated him enough he just drove through some of the family's rose bushes. After that, someone had gripped him from behind and pressed a rag over his face. Beside him, he could see that Rob was already asleep.

Josh tried to scream to wake him up, but he hadn't strength left for that. He tried to keep awake to be able to attack later. But they didn't buy that. Only seconds later he was asleep too.


	7. Somewhere on the east coast, USA

**Chapter 7**

_Somewhere i__n the Ocean_

_Later_

"Josh…" Josh sat up and stared at his friend and the other kids who were in the room. One of them he had actually met before.

"Tom?!" Tom gave Josh a weak smile. Rob still looked into his eyes.

"Do you still believe that everything is alright?" he asked friendly, and for some reason he smiled at him too.

"You have been asleep for a long time" Rob told him," Tamsyn escaped by the way, they asked me if I know anything about her." He turned to the only girl in the room without taking his eyes from Josh. "By the way, this is Lauren." Josh just stared at her.

"No, this is just not true … Are you the Lauren who always use to beat me in chess?"

"Obviously" Lauren replied.

"So I haven't just been beaten by a girl, I have been beaten by a girl who is younger then me?!" Lauren stared back at him.

"I'm very careful to keep my age a secret on the Internet. Then I can speak to older people without any special treatment!"

"That's a very clever idea!" Josh exclaimed. I actually wish I had thought about that myself sometimes." Lauren smiled. Then Rob continued. "Josh, someone is coming, pretend that you're still asleep…

_Somewhere on the __east coast of USA_

Mitch had been tied up and locked in, in some basement the entire day. He and all his working friends on Cyber Snax had been tied up and locked in, in the toilet before they had opened for the day. The first time Mitch hadn't been really scared at all, he had thought that they would just rob the cafe and steal the computers and leave the place. But it hadn't been that way.

When they had found everyone, they had came back and taken him with them. He had also heard that they was about to keep the others for a while so the police would believe that this was just a robbery. Now he was both scared and confused. But he didn't draw any parallels between what had happened to him and what had happened to Lauren. Even if he had a horrible feeling that it was for him those masked men had come. And if it's was that way, how long would it take for the police to understand that they had been fooled. If they would even think about it in that way when they just had rescued all the others.

He didn't even know were he was, he had been given a blindfold during the trip from New York to… were ever he were now. Mitch didn't even know if he was relieved that they had taken that thing away from him or not.

At midnight they were back. Mitch was dragged back to the car again; this time they allowed him to see everything. It was a short ride and it ended in a harbour.

He had kept calm during the ride, but now Mitch started struggling. He didn't like the submarine that was waiting in this harbour. But he was still tied up and helpless as he was taken towards it, pulled up and thrown down.


	8. In the submarine

**Chapter 8**

_In the submarine_

Mitch landed on the floor in the submarine and the masked people who had thrown him, climbed down. Down there they he was released from the gag and the next moment he saw the sneering woman coming towards him.

"Dive!" she ordered her assistants, and then she looked into Mitch eyes. "Hello Mitch"

"Who are you?"

"My name is Susan Archnid". That was all she had to say to him. "Take him away" Mitch didn't struggle anymore, he knew that he couldn't escape, besides, his arms and legs were still tied.

He was thrown into a small cabin. Still with no idea of what was happening. He started to cry again, and then he heard a sound from one of the bunks. A boy in his own age climbed down from his bunk and looked at him, only one second later the boy smiled.

"Let me guess, you are Mitch Zanelli is that right?" Mitch sobbed as the boy came closer.

"I'm Tom Peterson. Nice to meet you!" Mitch stared at his mail friend who continued. "But personally I had wished that we had met in other circumstances. Or what do you think?" Mitch was still shivering when Tom released the ropes.

"Tom? Are you Tom?!"

"Yes." he said easily, and then he pointed at the other bunks. "And this is Josh, Rob and Lauren." Mitch hid his face in his hand and Tom sat down beside his friend and placed his arm around him.

"Hey, it could have been worse, you know! Both I, Josh and Rob was drugged before we ended up here with people we didn't know." Now Mitch had calmed down a bit and was able to give Tom a weak smile.

"After all you woke up with friends…" After Tom had consoled Mitch he suddenly seemed scared himself. Mitch looked at Tom who looked back and finally asked:

"Do you know what time it is, I mean… is it day or night?"

"It's night, but where is Tamsyn?" Tom suddenly brighten up again.

"She escaped, Rob and Josh doesn't know where she is either. Her family is travelling around the world so they can be anywhere. Mitch felt a little happier at this news, even if Tamsyn presumably knew nothing about both the fact that her friends was kidnapped and that she were in danger herself. Then Tom asked Mitch what had happened to him, so he told him about the robbery of Cyber Snax and Tom told him about the poisoned arrow. Suddenly Mitch remembered something Tom had told him.

"Wait, did you say Rob was drugged?"

"Yes".

"But why? I mean, what could he have done…?"

"Well, he lives in a quite big house and is from a quite wealthy family. He could have, pressed the wrong button and called for help, like last time. Besides, Josh was with him when it happened and it's just his legs that doesn't work. He could easily have prevented that they had drugged Josh and then Josh could have run for help." Mitch started to laugh.

I wish that my father had been a police officer too. But Rob have never told me that he's from a rich family, why not?"

"Maybe because _you _have told _him_ that you work day and night to earn enough money for your education. You haven't been trying very hard to keep that a secret. And to tell the truth I think that I would have done the same thing if it was me." Tom showed Mitch which bunks that was unoccupied and at the same time he accidently woke Rob up.

"Rob, this is Mitch" Tom started to say but then Mitch interrupted him.

"Rob, do you have secrets for me? That you have told the others I mean" Mitch knit his arms together and then he started to smile.

"Nice to meet you too" Rob said. "And Mitch, I'm not rich. You, Tom, Josh, Lauren and Tamsyn are rich. I can't even walk". Then he lowered his eyes and turned deadly serious. "What do you think will happen if they find Tamsyn too?"

"No idea" Tom answered. "I mean, we don't even know who has done this." Suddenly Mitch looked like he was about to faint.

"Mitch?" Rob asked, starting to be afraid.

"Are you okay?" Tom continued. Finally Mitch took a breath and told them.

"I know who it is." Tom and Rob looked at him. "It's Susan Archnid. The Black widow." Suddenly the three of them got very quiet. Tom and Rob looked at each other. After a while Tom looked at Mitch again.

"Shall we wake up Josh and Lauren?" After that question the silence was over them again. Finally Rob decided what to do.

"No, let them sleep. They surely have enough nightmares without that" Then Rob crawled back into the quilts and only some seconds later Tom and Mitch heard him sob. Tom looked at Mitch again.

"You and I are a little older then the others. Lauren is only 11 years old." Mitch just stared at him and then he started stuttering.


	9. Next day

**Chapter 9**

_Next day_

After breakfast the next morning it didn't happen much. Josh and Lauren had discovered Mitch, the black widow had asked them where Tamsyn could be and threatened to throw Rob in the sea. But none of them knew anything and Rob had told her that he actually could swim and then she gave up.

But she had also decided that they would starve until they was ready to talk.

Later that evening when Rob, Josh and Lauren had fell asleep. Tom shook Mitch until he woke up.

"What?" He tried to ask but Tom made him silent again. They walked over to the door.

"I placed a nail in the door lock earlier."

"What are you telling me? Is this door unlocked?" Tom nodded. "Wait. What's the good news about that, we are in the middle of the ocean, and we don't even know where in the world!"

"So you don't want to follow me? I thought that we could find a computer, find were we are and steal some food when we have finished that." There was a computer there and they found it.

"Can you see were we are?" Tom whispered to Mitch who had sat down in front of the computer.

"No not exactly, but we are quite close to land."

"Which country?" Mitch looked helpless at him. Then he turned to the computer again.

"They are on their way to this country anyway."

"Do you think we have a chance run away?"

"Maybe if we'll wait until tomorrow. Come on, let's go back."

"Wait!"

"Tom, what are you doing?!"

"Warning Tamsyn".

"Good, but hurry up." When Tom had sent his message to Tamsyn they sneaked away to steal some food. Even that part was easy. When they came back Mitch hid the bundle in his bed and Tom made sure that the nail were still safe in the door lock.


	10. France airport

**Chapter 10**

_France airport_

Tamsyn stared on Tom's message in one of the computers on the in the airport.

**Tamsyn****(a)****.**

**Sherlock(a)**

**Be careful. The Black widow has kidnapped everyone except you. We don't ****know were on the map we are, but we know that we are on a submarine. Mitch and I succeeded to escape tonight and found this computer. Josh and Rob have made up a story that they don't know where you are and according to other things they have said, I believe them too. I can't tell you more this time as they maybe can read it after we have sent this. **

**See you, I hope…**

**Tom, Mitch, Rob, Josh ****and Lauren.**

Suddenly Tamsyn heard her little brother Nick yell.

"Tamsyn, the plane is about to leave!!"

"I'm coming" she roared back at the same time as she forced her brain to work faster. When Tom had been writing this it were night. And here it was. Then she wrote a message to Tom's father and forwarded Tom's message and caught up with Nick,

_In the submarine._

Rob, Josh and Lauren listened to Mitch's and Tom's story in eager expectation at the same time as they gratefully ate of the stolen food.

"We will be close enough to land to run away tonight." Tom said finally. "The nail is left in the door so we can just walk away."

"So you know where we are, in the world I mean?" Josh asked

"No, but it can't be worse than this" then Lauren came up with another question.

"What are we going to do with Rob?" Tom couldn't answer.

"You can leave me here" Rob suddenly said. Everyone looked at him like he was crazy. "If you can escape you can get help" he explained, but his voice was much weaker then last time he spoke.

"My parents will employ an entire army to find me" he continued, this time he even refused to look at the others.

"Are you sure?" Lauren asked, her voice was weak too. This time all Rob succeeded was a not audible mumbling. Then Mitch stepped in.

"No way!"

"No, you are going with us. You said you could swim right?" Tom continued. Rob looked very relieved.

"Yes" Tom smiled.

"Okay, then we'll do as we have planned and then, we have to improvise"

_Later_

Tom removed the pillow case on his and Laurens pillows and packed down what was left of the stolen food and tied them together with the ropes Mitch had been tied up with. When he was finished Lauren pulled out the nail and looked out.

It was midnight.

"It's okay" she whispered and sneaked out. Josh walked out behind her, then Mitch who carried Rob on his back came. Tom was the last one and he spied behind them.

"Which way?" Josh asked and turned to Mitch who turned to Tom.

Everyone sighed.

"Didn't you think about that before?" Lauren accused, glaring at Mitch and Tom. While they was standing there whispering to each other Rob suddenly heard some noise.

"Someone is coming!" he whispered. Josh found a door just in time and they sneaked in. In there Lauren found a map over the submarine. Quickly everyone noted at much as possible and when the danger was over they sneaked back out to the corridor.

They found the way out without anymore difficulties. To their relief it was unlocked. Tom found another rope which he bound Rob to Mitch so Mitch could climb. Tom was the last one to climb out.

"Finally! Fresh air!" he said when he was back with the others. Then he looked around and discovered that they were in a harbour.

"Maybe we should jump now, before they comes back" Josh decided. Lauren nodded and started to run over the side of the submarine until she dared to dive.

Josh and Tom freed Mitch and Rob from the rope and Tom packed it down into one of the pillow cases in case they would need it later. Then Josh and Tom jumped too, but Mitch hesitated.

"Mitch, it's okay" Rob said trying to calm his friend down. "Just make sure that we will not get captured again. You can do it, and I can swim, I promise."

"Okay, it's just, if I make any mistake…"

"Yes, we can die, but that's better then what will happen to us if we gets caught by those people again."

"You are right." Mitch finally said. "Alright, are you ready?" Mitch ran over the side and jumped. He dropped Rob, but he too fell in the water and now, Rob could move just as good as his friends.

Tom had found a landing which they hid under.

"Look, we swim over to those bushes instead. They will surely start looking at places like this if they discovers that we are gone" Josh suggested.

"And they _will_ discover that sooner or later" Lauren mumbled.

One by one they swam over to the bushes and there they crawled up on land.


	11. Perth, Australia

**Chapter 11**

_Perth, Australia_

_12.12 Friday_

The Smith family had hardly landed in Perth when Tamsyn made up a history that gave her a reason to go to the police. Later, at the police station she immediately asked to speak with Tom's dad.

When he heard that she was the Tamsyn who had forwarded Tom's mail he immediately ran out to the waiting room to see her.

"Do you know what has happened to Tom?" was his first question.

"The only thing I know is that we helped the police to stop the woman who calls herself the black widow and that Tom sent this mail to warn me." Tamsyn's father looked at her in horror.

"Are you telling me that some wicked criminal is after you?" Tamsyn gave him a weak smile.

"I don't know, but according to Tom, she has kidnapped the others." Tamsyn's dad turned to Tom's.

"What are we doing now?"

_Somewhere_

Lauren went in to an Internet café dressed up with a headscarf and sunglasses which they had stolen. She sat down in front of one of the computers and wrote a new mail for Tamsyn.

**Tamsyn****(a)****.**

**lktoro****(a).ca**

**H****i Tamsyn. We have escaped from the submarine. It's mainly desert around here, that's all we know, we don't know were we are, but we think that we are somewhere in Mexico.**

**See you later, I hope.**

**Lauren ****and the guys**

Lauren came out to the others again and threw the scarf and the glasses away.

"And now?" she asked.

"I don't want to be here in this town anyway. The Black widow surely knows that we have escaped and she will look for us." Josh said.

"I think we should keep away from the bus stops too" Tom continued. "That is the first place she will seek."

Lauren watched them for a long time.

"Then it's just one thing we can do." she said, and then she began to walk.

_In the desert_

Some hours later they all was very tired. Even Rob, who wasn't able to walk himself. It was quite trying, to be moved from back to back all the time.

None of them had any shoes left. They had fallen of, and the children had just left them there one by one. Rob had borrowed his shoes to Lauren but they had finally ended up the same way. And suddenly Josh and Lauren had fallen to the ground in exhaustion.

"What have we done?" Josh asked right into the air. But everyone was too tired and unhappy to answer.

_At the police office in Perth_

At the same time in Perth, the police and Tamsyn had got very good news. They now knew that Tamsyns friends had run away from their kidnappers and after they had traced the mail they even knew where to seek. What they didn't know, on the other hand, was if they had dared to stay in the town or if they had fled out into the desert.


	12. Desert Time: unknown Country unknown

**Chapter 12**

_Desert__. Time: unknown. Country unknown. _

After some rest, they started walking again. For days, there were some trees here and there and in the nights they slept under them or in caves sometimes. They had even found water quite often.

Lauren was the first to give up.

"Can't anyone carry me too?" she asked before she could stop herself. Rob glared at her from the stone that Tom had let him down on.

"Sorry!" Lauren said weakly and suddenly she started to cry. She run over to Rob and hugged him. He cried too. Then Lauren suddenly stopped and just stared.

"Look!" she exclaimed and pointed out over the field behind them. Tom walked over to Rob's side to see.

"Kangaroos!" he exclaimed. "We are not in Mexico, we're in Australia!" Mitch looked at him with tired eyes.

"Fine, does that mean that you can show us the way to Perth so we can get help?" Tom's smile disappeared. Mitch sat down behind Rob on the rock and sighed.

_I__n the city where the submarine is _

"So the Black Widow escaped again." Mr. Peterson sighed. He, his wife and Tamsyn's family sat in the local police station and tried to find out what to do now.

Tamsyn was not allowed to go outside. If the black widow or some of her companions remained in the city and she disappeared too, then there would be no witnesses and the black widow would presumably escape forever.

They had been there for several days now, waiting for a helicopter which would come to take them out over the desert. And the more time that passed the less hope to find the kids alive.

Tamsyn looked outside the window. So typical that the helicopter in this city had broke down right now. Suddenly she got alert, she knew someone who maybe had a helicopter in this city.

_In the desert_

That they had found out that they were in Australia wasn't a big progress at all. It just felt a little safer but not anything to speak of. Australia was big after all, and when Tom had told his friends that the cities weren't as close as in England, USA or Canada, no one really dared to hope anymore.


	13. In the desert

**Chapter 13**

_In the desert_

Next morning they woke up and continued. Josh carried Rob on his back. Then a strange smell hit them, no one could place it. Rob was still a little sleepy and as he wasn't able to walk, he took his chance to get some more sleep.

First when they came out of the forest they saw what it was that were wrong. On the other side of the field there was an enormous wildfire.

"Then we have to go back" Lauren said weakly. Mitch nodded and was about to take over Rob from Josh when he saw Tom. He had sink down to the ground and it seemed like he had given up.

"Tom?!"

" There is no points even try?" Tom almost sobbed. Mitch looked at him and tried to find out what to do.

"Tom we can't stay here, come on. Now!" Tom suddenly looked back at him.

"You haven't heard about the Australian wildfires right? We don't have a chance." Mitch swallowed and looked from Tom to the fire on the other side and back again.

"Tom, we can't just give up, come on!" But Tom had lost all his energy, he had given up. Lauren, Josh and Rob just watched them. None of them could find a way out of this. Tom continued.

"The fire will be here in only a few seconds." Mitch looked at him. Tom was on the verge of tears. He was scared. Mitch sat down beside him. Lauren sat down on the other side and Josh placed Rob beside them and then he sat down himself too. Then they all put their arms around each other in a big friends-hug and waited.


	14. Australia

**Chapter**** 14**

_Above the desert_

The helicopter turned away from the wildfire. They hadn't seen anyone in the area and if there were any people there, they wouldn't be able to help them anyway. Tamsyn sighed and hoped that her friends hadn't been going this way. She looked out through the window again. Then she saw them. There was some people down there who sat close to each other, it seemed like they had caught sight of the fire and given up.

"Stop!" She screamed and pointed them out. Tamsyn didn't know if it was her friends or someone else, but she was quite sure that they wanted to get out of this place.

_I __the woods_

Lauren looked up when she heard a noise. When she saw the helicopter she first made a quiet sound with her mouth then she saw the logo on the helicopter _Gamezone_. She pushed Rob. He saw it too. The next moment everyone had jumped on their feet, except Rob who couldn't.

The helicopter landed, Tamsyn and Tom's family came out. Tamsyn gave Josh and Rob one big hug each. But Tom who had got his hope back interrupted her and told everyone to run back to the helicopter. Then he tried to lift Rob, but he didn't have any strengeth left.

Tom's dad lifted Rob up and ran back to the helicopter.

When they all were back in the helicopter again and Tom's mum had checked that everyone was there at least ten times, they flew away. Some seconds later they sat there watching the wildfire. The place were they had been sitting was on fire now. The entire forest was on fire. And they saw everything from above.

"We would have been fried by now if you hadn't arrived" Tom said. Lauren just mumbled something. Then Rob noticed that his parents weren't there.

"How did you get a helicopter from my parents company when none of them was here?" Tamsyn answered him.

"The helicopter they had on the police station had broke down and it was impossible to get another one that fast that we needed. And then I thought about your parents, I thought that they might have a private helicopter in the neighbourhood, so I called them and explained everything. They are on their way, by the way. And they have paid tickets for Josh's and Mitch's families and Allie too. They'll meet up with us when we come back to Perth.

Rob just smiled and looked out over the wildfire again. Tom, Mitch, Josh and Lauren had fallen asleep. It was the first time in weeks that they had felt safe enough to sleep so no one tried to wake them up. Finally Rob fell asleep too. And the helicopter flew on towards Perth.

The End


End file.
